In 1980, past and present patients at Essex County Hospital Center (the "Hospital"), filed a class action lawsuit against Essex County, Essex County Hospital Center, and Essex County Department of Health and Rehabilitation in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The plaintiffs, ...
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In 1980, past and present patients at Essex County Hospital Center (the "Hospital"), filed a class action lawsuit against Essex County, Essex County Hospital Center, and Essex County Department of Health and Rehabilitation in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The plaintiffs, represented by New Jersey State public advocates, asked the court for declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging that Hospital conditions violated their First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as those under various laws and statutes of the United States and the State of New Jersey. Specifically, the plaintiffs contended that conditions and policies at the Hospital deprived them of their right to meaningful treatment, subjected them to inhumane and unsafe environmental factors, deprived them of effective medical care, confined them in unduly restrictive ward settings, deprived them of their fundamental personal and civil rights, and denied them access to their own funds.

On February 25, 1981, the District Court (Judge Herbert J. Stern) certified a class consisting of all past, present, and future patients at the Hospital.

The parties immediately entered settlement negotiations and, on July 20, 1981, the parties entered a stipulation of settlement, which the District Court (Judge Stern) approved. Under the settlement, the hospital agreed to submit to a court-appointed Master.